The invention relates to chairs and more particularly to a chair having outrigged rests for outstretched arms.
Sonographers, among other parties that would benefit from the invention, are a group of professionals in the medical field characterized in part by having to assume and awkward, tiring posture to do the job. Briefly, sonographers, as a group perform any variety of medical examinations of patients typically with ultrasound equipment. An example scenario has the sonographer positioned between the patient (ie., the exam subject) and the user interface of the data-recording equipment. That is, right-handed sonographers might find it most comfortable to hold the ultrasound probe in the right hand while keying in keystrokes or the like with the left hand (or vice versa). Regardless which is the hand of choice to hold the probe, what typically happens is that the sonographer has his or her arms outstretched in a spread wing fashion during the course of the exam procedure. To refer momentarily ahead to the drawings, FIG. 1 gives an example of what this posture might appear like.
During most sonograms, the sonographer may be forced to hold the arms outstretched like that for between fifteen (15) to fifty (50) minutes. Needless to say there are problems with holding such a posture for that long several times a day for a career.
Indeed the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries among sonographers is as high as 85%. What is needed is an improvement which provides solutions to persons such as sonographers who work with their arms outstretched as mentioned. It is an object of the invention to provide a chair incorporating various enhancements which provide improvements for such persons.
It is another object of the invention to provide a chair having outrigger structures to provide a rest or landing place for the elbow, forearm, or both of a user""s arm when substantially outstretched.
It is an additional object of the invention that the outrigger structures are adjustable between not only upper and lower extremes but more significantly between inboard and outboard extremes.
These and other aspects and objects are provided according to the invention in a chair having an outrigged limb rest for supporting a user""s substantially outstretched arm. The chair has a seat for supporting the user, an adjustable outrigger connected to the seat, and a limb rest carried on the adjustable outrigger for supporting the user""s outstretched arm The adjustable outrigger includes a mechanism for adjusting or varying the elevation of the limb rest between upper and lower extremes as well as varying the inboard to outboard position of the limb rest between inboard and outboard extremes such that the limb rest is positionable to afford a rest or landing place for the elbow, forearm, or both of the user""s arm when substantially outstretched.
The chair can optionally include two such outrigged arm rests as well as a crutch or rest on one or both sides so that the user can lean or slump on and thereby relieve tension on muscles that hold upright seated posture over extended periods of time.
A number of additional features and objects will be apparent in connection with the following discussion of preferred embodiments and examples.